Week Nine: Instant Messaging

I have used instant messaging at work to answer reference questions. Also, I've chatted on Facebook and in gmail, but just a little bit. Like Twitter, IM is another way to reach library patrons (like Liz mentioned, especially millennials). I would answer a question through IM every shift or every other shift when I worked at Washburn's Mabee Library. Sometimes I would get a handful of questions. IM was not ideal for bulky reference questions, but for quick ready reference it was great.

I tried google talk for this week- jennifer.p.cook@gmail.com. The buddies I tried to connect with were offline, so I will try to chat with them again soon. Using IM to discuss work ideas seems like a good substitute if people can't meet in person.

Week Seven: Microblogging

Twitter is very easy to use. I like the intimacy of the site. I like that I can follow writers and institutions that I am interested in, along with people I know. I found it easy to find people to follow- I was getting a little worried that I was choosing to follow too many people… we’ll see.

I chose to follow Timothy McSweeny because I think the publication is clever. I checked the tweets and had a laugh. I am following librarybeat and see that they post many useful links to podcasts and websites. New York Public Library has a great set of tweets; quotes are mixed into their messages adding some substance to checking their posts.

Lawrence Public Library uses Twitter to post about events and library resources. Also, the library encourages feedback for users. Making library resources available to the public in another form seems like an ideal professional use of Twitter.

Here is my very dull page. Maybe I will make it more interesting at some point.

Week Eight: Cloud Computing

I am posting out of order this week- I got started on the cloud computing exercise before the microblogging one- oops!

For this week I experimented with Wikispaces. I started a wiki that could serve as a place to share resources for those who work in children's departments. If anyone would like to contribute or take a look please do. My wiki is Storytime-Sharespace ; I created pages for favorite books, storytime themes, craft ideas and program plans.

I also plan to experiment with Weebly because I would like to be able to create a simple, free webpage. Cloud computing is a definite strength of the Internet.

Week Six: Social Bookmarking

I enjoyed using delicious this week. I signed up for an account a couple years ago, but only used it a few times. The tutorial helped me to become more familiar with the site and make use of some features I haven't used before. I will use the tag bundle to organize websites that have storytime resources and sites that deal with reader's advisory. Here is my account.

Week Five: RSS and Feed Readers

I chose to use Google Reader because I have a gmail account. I chose to subscribe to Abby (the) Librarian's feed because I work in the children's department at my library. I also chose to subscribe to a toddler storytime -Storytime Snapshot- feed because I am new to the storytime world and like getting all the details I can.

Week Four: Photo Sharing

I looked around on Flickr and found some beautiful pictures of cherry blossoms by manyfires. I started an account and will add pictures when I am on my home computer. Flickr seems to be a very user-friendly system.

Week Three: Online Meetings

I watched the archived webinar “Getting a Grip on Social Networking- Flickr, Del.icio.us, and Twitter” by Shelly Drumm at BCR. It was very well done. I enjoyed Shelly as an instructor and heard about some neat ways to use social networking in libraries. San Mateo Library tags del.icio.us entries using the Dewey Decimal System. A participant in the webinar mentioned a museum using Twitter or another technology to post updates about the museum on an electronic board that visitors see as they enter the building. Other interesting ideas are mentioned, so people who are interested should give it a look.

While going to library school at ESU I used Wimba during at least four courses. The meetings were a nice compromise between posting on an online discussion forum and having class in person. I was able to see my instructor via webcam for some of the meetings, which made the sessions less sterile. It was great to be able to view powerpoint presentations as the teacher presented. One teacher posted questions to the class, then she publicly displayed the answers we submitted; everyone was able to get a word in and we could compare what everyone thought pretty effectively.

Perhaps access to webinars will grow as the technology becomes more familiar. Webinars may be something that people stumble on as they look for information on Google, in the same way that people are linked to blogs now. The collaborative aspect of the tool may catch on and allow greater numbers of people to work together online.